My husband Dave and I have always wanted to travel. Even when we were dating in high school it was our dream. At first we said we would do it once we were in college. We’d take a year abroad. But it just never worked out, never felt compatible with our fields of study. Then we married and our objectives focused on finding jobs, getting settled, and buying a condo. We still harbored dreams of seeing the world. But to some degree, in my mind anyway, they had been relegated to wishin’ and hopin’ status.
Then in 2009, we heard a TED Talk by Stefan Sagmeister, a New York-based graphic designer and typographer. In his The Power of Time Off video, Stefan revealed why he closes his studio every seven years for a yearlong sabbatical. The time away was essential, he said, to rejuvenate and refresh his creativity.
Stefan’s remarks touched a nerve. Had Dave and I traded in our dreams of travel for the conventional (and somewhat illusory) path of working a lifetime before — finally — having the means to retire? By closing his studio five times over the course of his career, Stefan was essentially pushing back his retirement age by five years. If the expectation of retirement had been the age of sixty-five, his new goal would be seventy.
But by giving himself time to explore when he was young and healthy, he was seeding his future with renewed inspiration, and a wealth of experiences to draw from.
See Stefan’s TED Talk here: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/stefan_sagmeister_the_power_of_time_off.html <http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/stefan_sagmeister_the_power_of_time_off.html>
We began to realize that this wasn’t just an extended “see the world” vacation, it was a solid investment in our creative futures. When you look at it this way, the trip is not only logical, but completely necessary.
The time for the trip is now.
post 2 of 3 by Emily Carlson
